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Re: alphabet

Hello friends.Thax for replies.
The very bigginers who don't know Dictionary,At first should learn some words through images.Then gradgually learn more and more words.then,werbs and constructing sentences....So what's your idea?
The main question is:the name of letters and their correspondenceto their sounds.Sould we teach the names in early steps? Or you believe the students can learn the names later?

Re: alphabet

When learning Greek, I was taught the alphabet at the same time as being introduced to the basics of grammar. Apart from other concerns, how can you learn to take dictated spellings without knowing the letters?

I do feel it is essential to learn it. It can be treated as an exercise in its own right.

Re: alphabet

Well, you have to consider their age and knowledge of English.

Young children who know absolutely zero English, yes, teach the alphabet thoroughly (teach it as a song).

For older students with more ability to udnerstand, single out the vowels (they have 14 different sounds together) and spend extra time on tricky letters (l, q, r, x, y and w); you can really investigate the alphabet long into English study.

There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but over 44 individual sounds in English, more if you consider American/British variations that's tricky and deserves attention. I believe the better they know the alphabet, the better their pronunciation will be.

Re: alphabet

Yes,feiends I agree with you.It is nessecary to know the alphabet ,very much.And learning it as you're learning words is better.But , as youknow,It's a hard job to teach them while there are so many sounds.Here in Iran we teach the alphabet and the rest English at the same time.At frst steps we introduce some of the symboles as we don't refer to their names.After four or more setions we teach teir names.

Originally Posted by weiming

Well, you have to consider their age and knowledge of English.

Young children who know absolutely zero English, yes, teach the alphabet thoroughly (teach it as a song).

For older students with more ability to udnerstand, single out the vowels (they have 14 different sounds together) and spend extra time on tricky letters (l, q, r, x, y and w); you can really investigate the alphabet long into English study.

There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but over 44 individual sounds in English, more if you consider American/British variations that's tricky and deserves attention. I believe the better they know the alphabet, the better their pronunciation will be.

Re: alphabet

The main question is: the name of letters and their correspondence to their sounds. S[h]ould we teach the names in early steps? Or you believe the students can learn the names later?

Teach both. Students need to know that letters have names and sounds.

1. Names are used in spelling words verbally:

Max: How do you spell bat?
Sam: You spell it [bi:] [e:] [ti:].

Think classroom language. How are your students going to be able to ask you or their peers how to spell a word if they don't know how to name the letters?

2. Sounds are used in pronunciation:

The symbol "A" is called [e:]. That's its name, and it has more than one sound; e.g., [ae] as in apple and [a] as in father, and so on.

Adults will of course catch on much quicker than children, but age has nothing to do with and shouldn't have anything to do with teaching the alphabet, no matter the language, because they represent the symbols of written and spoken language.